Wednesday, February 11, 2004

"'We try to hire the best, smartest people available,' Brandon said of his philosophy hires. 'If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire.

"'Mill's analysis may go some way towards explaining the power of the Republican party in our society and the relative scarcity of Republicans in academia. Players in the NBA tend to be taller than average. There is a good reason for this. Members of academia tend to be a bit smarter than average. There is a good reason for this too.'"

So, the chair of Duke's philosophy department thinks that conservatives are stupid.